Help:Guidelines
This page illustrates the guidelines for general behaviour and editing on the Hitchhikers Wiki as well as what it means to be part of our growing community. This page has been created to provide guiding principles for community growth and sustainability, and to give a base-line for expected behaviour here on the Hitchhiker's Wiki. These guidelines were created with the help of a group discussion on a blog post, and are here to benefit our Wiki and community. Many of the common guidelines are similar to those found in any community, whether it's offline or online, a social club, gaming guild, or sports team. Our guidelines page includes basic rules and policies set out by FANDOM, as well as guidelines which are more specific to our Wiki in particular, all collected in one place as a good introductory read for our contributors. For more in depth guidelines and templates/examples for editing articles, please see our . It is encouraged that all community members wishing to work on articles read our MoS in order to ensure we follow the same editing guidelines. Disclaimer Hitchhiker's Wiki admins and managing staff disclaim responsibility for the content of external sites that are linked or shared on this Wiki. The content on Hitchhiker's Wiki is not official and we can make no guarantee of validity and reliability of the content. The Wiki admins and managing staff are not responsible for member posts, content and comments. Using this Wiki means adhering to our guidelines and . However, please be aware that this Wikia is a public space available to many and may contain content you find objectionable. Hitchhiker's Wiki cannot be held responsible for any form of misconduct or violation of rules, regulations, terms of use, protocols, and policies having legal effect, by a member, directly or indirectly, intentionally or not. This Wiki contains sitewide spoilers for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and related adaptions and media. Users understand that they are at risk of seeing spoilers through articles, comments and other Hitchhiker's Wiki content. General policies and guidelines If you are new to FANDOM, it is recommended that you read the FANDOM policies: *Community Creation Policy *Disclaimer *Licensing *Privacy Policy *Terms of Use *What FANDOM is not It is helpful for you to at least be aware of these policies. It is up to every user to make themselves aware of the policies of FANDOM as a whole, and of the guidelines and for each individual FANDOM community that you join. If you fail to follow these guidelines, or the FANDOM policies, you will face warnings, or, in more serious situations, banning or blocking. Joining a Wiki means that you are aware that there are guidelines to follow, and that you are aware that consequences will happen if you fail to follow them. It is not the job of admins or other users to educate you on these policies and guidelines. Action will be taken if users refuse to adhere to the FANDOM and Hitchhiker's guidelines and policies. Please see the section on Blocking below for further information. Community guidelines Here are some general guidelines we ask our community members to follow on Hitchhikers: Do: Jump right in. '''Anyone is free to edit here, so simply click edit and get started! '''Collaborate with others. Working with others is the key to creating a successful community, and helps forge understanding between users. Our community is built, supported and owned by all participating community members. Practice open-mindedness. '''If you think there is a problem, it's best to ask the user about the issue first, then take any additional steps if need be. If there are differing opinions that are not causing harm, try to listen to one another and find a solution together. '''Be nice. You do not have to join in with all community discussions, but please try to communicate with others if you have any issues or queries instead of doing things your own way. Being friendly and welcoming helps keep our community working together and staying strong. Respect fellow users. Please respect the wishes of other members of the community, such as their personal space and comfort levels. Do not force conversation topics or activities onto others. Do not insult, threaten, harass, purposefully offend, or disrespect users or their opinions. Hate speech is never tolerated towards any admins or community members. Be careful with your language. Mild profanity is permitted, as it is often used in the Hitchhiker's series. However, please avoid heavy use of profanity, and only include it on article pages if entirely necessary. Avoid using quotes which feature heavy profanity and be mindful that anyone is able to access our Wiki. Hate speech, slurs, and any form of offensive or discriminatory language is not permitted, even if reclaimed by the user, in order to keep our Wiki accessible to as many people as possible and to avoid causing offense. Sexually explicit language is not permitted. Welcome new users. Helpful and friendly advice goes a lot further than mean comments or teasing. We were all new once, and working together is better than pushing others away from the community. New users won't recieve warnings for making mistakes, so please do not threaten any new users with serious action. Spread the word. Feel free to invite friends, family, and others who may be interested. Spread the word amongst those who may share the same interest in Hitchhiker's as you. Ask for help. If you are confused or need help, just ask! There is a lot of help all around you on FANDOM, including our help pages, local admins, Central forums, and staff. No question is too small! Keep it relevant. '''Please don't add irrelevant non-relevant comments, material or media to articles. You are welcome to start friendly conversations with other users on talk pages or through Discussions, but please do not use the comment feature on articles for general conversation. Please do not derail conversations about serious issues such as warnings or behaviour issues. '''Remember that online communities still involve real people. Even though you are online, this is still a community made up of real people. Mean comments, aggressive behavior, and vandalism all affect real people. If you wouldn't say it in person, don't say it here. If it breaks these guidelines or the FANDOM Terms of Use, please don't say it at all. Do not: Use articles as a playspace. Make use of the Sandbox and read the before making changes that you are not fully confident in. Information added to articles should not contain speculation or personal opinion. Stick to topics and articles that you are sure about editing. If an article recieves enough unwarranted edits, it may be locked so only certain users are allowed to make changes to it, which should be avoided to keep articles open to all. Be disruptive. If your behavior affects other people and their ability to engage on Hitchhikers this could result in a warning or blocking. This includes spam, vandalism, and anything else that takes people's attention away from the matter at hand and instead towards what you're doing. Plagiarize content. If you are bringing content to FANDOM, such as adding content from elsewhere to our articles, please remember to cite the authors properly. Don't assume that everything on the Internet is open for the taking. Make sure you have permission to use something before you copy it, and follow the rules for attribution when you do reuse. Use the Wiki to advertise. Spam or links to non-relevant material will be removed, so please don't add it to begin with. If you wish to promote your fan-works, please do so in a blog post or in your profile description, and please do not add any links to fundraising/payment: e.g Patreon, Ko-fi or PayPal. Feed the trolls. Be calm and limit contact with vandals, instead of giving them attention. Don't play games with the vandals as this makes it more fun for them. Please contact an admin about any trolls/vandals - they will resolve the situation from there. Make personal attacks. Don't make it personal. Wikis are meant to be a place to collaborate with others on topics that excite you. Pages meant just as an attack on someone will be removed. This includes content posted in articles and messages to other users. Finally... Don't forget to have fun! FANDOM is a place to have fun, meet new people, and learn more about your favourite topics. There is serious work to be done, but you should always remember to enjoy what you are doing! Admin guidelines Admins are present on Hitchhikers to help keep things running smoothly. They clean up spam and vandalism, they intervene in disruptive behavior, they encourage participation, and they keep things on track. Here are some general guidelines we ask that our admins to follow: Revert and block simple spam and vandalism. If it clearly doesn’t belong here, make it go away. If it looks like a user needs to be banned globally, report the situation to a member of the VSTF. Be fair. '''Consider situations carefully before acting on them. If a user makes an honest mistake, give them the opportunity to learn and improve. Be patient and encouraging with new users. '''Encourage participation. Be friendly and welcoming to members, help them get to know Community Central, and support their interactions. Offer advice and support to new users if you notice they are having issues. Encourage users to participate in polls, discussions and community events and activities. Keep things structured, but not too structured. '''Do your best to support and maintain the goals and organisation of the Wiki, but be flexible about growth and change. Be open to advice and constructive criticism - every Wiki has room to improve. '''Adhere to direction from FANDOM Staff. Sometimes a situation may need to be taken to the staff at Community Central in order for a resolution to be found. Communicate with other users and admins as much as possible, but remember that the FANDOM Staff are there to handle any serious complaints or issues if you feel out of your depth. Privacy and safety For your own safety, it's recommended that you do not post personal information about yourself, such as your school, home address, etc. You are free to use a nickname or alias and do not have to add your name, gender or birthday to your profile if you are not comfortable doing so. Do not pressure others to reveal personal or private information. If you feel that another user is doing this to you, then please contact an admin, who will help resolve the situation and remove the user if necessary. Remember, anything on this website can be seen by anyone on the internet, and the admins and Wiki staff are not responsible for any information you choose to share on this website. Blocking Joining a Wiki means becoming part of a community, and thus means following the community guidelines and respecting the other users around you. Failure to follow the FANDOM policies, rules of etiquette, Manual of Style, or other guidelines will result in cautionary action being taken, in order to do what is best to maintain a safe and respectful community. If you notice a user is behaving rudely, disrupting editing work, or otherwise breaking the guidelines, please let an admin know instead of attempting to handle the issue yourself. Admins have signed up to deal with issues like this on behalf of the Wiki and can attempt to resolve them and implement official warnings more effectively. As with most Wikis, Hitchhiker's follows a three strikes rule: three warnings and then a ban will be issued if you have failed to heed the previous warnings and continue to break guidelines. This is subject to the actions of the user, and whether the user has a registered account or not: unregistered or "anonymous" contributors are hard to communicate with or track, so they will often recieve a ban for a certain amount of time instead of warnings. Unnacceptable behaviour or guideline breaking can fall into one of three categories: mild, moderate or severe: *Mild issues are usually easily solved without the need for a warning and tend to only involve breaking one guideline. An example of a mild issue is if a user uses unnecessary curse words in an article. This is not imminently disruptive, but is against the guidelines and is unneeded strong language that could offend. *Moderate issues may result in a warning and tend to involve breaking one or more guidelines. An example of a moderate issue is if a user is changing article pages to suit them, such as adding their own personal opinions, changing text from British English to American English, or replacing article images with their own fanart. This is sellfish editing and shows a disregard for other editors and contributors. *Severe issues may result in a final warning or block and tend to be the result of repeated guideline breaking. An example of a severe issue is when a user continues to do the above mild or moderate issues repeatedly, ignoring admins and showing a blatant disregard for the rest of the Wiki and the guidelines. A severe issue affects the rest of the Wiki and threatens the way it runs, and tends to involve users who refuse to work with a Wiki community and be respectful. Most issues can be resolved through discussion. If users are understanding and considerate there will be no need to take the issue further. Users are given the benefit of the doubt and a chance to discuss the issue, however severe issues show an ongoing or severe problem with a user's behaviour and/or attitude and usually result in an immediate block. If a user's actions are a severe level of guideline breaking, then FANDOM staff are often directly involved to assist and will automatically take action. Admins can also request that FANDOM staff become involved in serious issues and take the action they deem necessary. Common block protocol *Admins are advised to follow the three-strike policy before blocking. *Warnings will be given in an attempt to give users a chance to improve. If a third warning is issued, this will result in further action - most likely a block being issued. *Users should be given a chance to explain their actions, show that they understand the warning, and given a chance to improve. *Allow users to access their talk pages while blocked, at least for 5-7 days, in order to have a chance to appeal or to list any unfinished editing work that they would like to be continued in their absence (unless in severe cases where users can not be trusted to engage with the Wiki). *Most first-time blocks will be for short periods, especially if IP-based. *Users may be allowed back after a blocking for a trial period where admins can judge if their behaviour has improved sufficiently enough to be allowed back full-time. *If a user repeatedly refuses to adhere to the warnings given, does not change their behaviour, and/or does not respect the guidelines, policies and fellow users, a more severe block may be issued. Why people are blocked Users can be blocked for many reasons. Each community may have slightly different blocking policies, but in general, blocks are generally given for: *Vandalism, especially repeated vandalism *Breaking policies *Abuse of user rights *Being unkind to/harassing other users *Adding pages that are copyright violations *Offensive or misleading usernames/avatars *Spam *Inserting false information Common block summaries The default reasons for blocking include: *Inserting false information *Abusing multiple accounts *Spamming links to external sites *Intimidating behaviour/harassment *Removing content from pages *Inserting nonsense/gibberish into pages *Unacceptable username Appealing a block If you feel you have been unfairly blocked, please contact the person who blocked you. Show them the entire message you get when you attempt to edit a page, so that they can make appropriate unblocks if they see fit. If you are unable to edit at all on the wiki, leaving a message on Community Central to an admin of the wiki where you are blocked is advised. If they think you still deserve to be blocked, please wait for your block to end or contribute to a different wiki, instead. Admins make decisions based on past behaviour and what is best for the community, so please respect their decisions. Note that harassing admins by messaging more than once, or leaving more than a single message will probably result in them getting annoyed, and so keeping the block. Please do not spam replies/messages to admins on talk pages, or attempt to contact them on any Wiki other than Community Central, as this can be a form of harassment. Further reading All of our personal guidelines on Hitchhikers follow the general rules of Wikipedia and FANDOM. As well as the FANDOM pages mentioned in the introduction, there are more in depth Wikipedia pages on guidelines too. FANDOM is not a part of Wikipedia, however we have used some of the shared guidelines from both websites to influence our own. If you wish to familiarise yourself with these pages, or wish to read more in depth about these topics, please see the links below: *Wikipedia Tutorial/Introduction *Wikipedia - List of Guidelines *Wikipedia - List of Policies *Wikipedia - Manual of Style *Wikipedia - Etiquette *Further reading: What Wikipedia is not If you have any queries about our guidelines, please double check the Wikia/Fandom and Wikipedia pages for answers before leaving comments below or sharing your query with an admin, as you will likely find the answer to your question within the Wikipedia guidelines.